The world is slowly wakening up to biodiversity loss and there are both serious risks to business, as well as significant opportunities, associated with biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. These are some of the major conclusions drawn in the new report ”The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) for Business”, which was recently launched at the first Global Business of Biodiversity Symposium in London.

– Through the work of TEEB and others, the economic importance of biodiversity and ecosystems is emerging from the invisible into the visible spectrum, says Pavan Sukhdev, the TEEB Study Leader and also head of UNEP’s Green Economy Initiative, in a press release.

The new report cites a number of cases where businesses have started to think about ecosystems and their biodiversity as an extension of their asset base. It also identifies practical tools to manage biodiversity risks and highlights some emerging business models that deliver biodiversity benefits and ecosystem services on a commercial basis.

The TEEB for business report also emphasises that biodiversity loss cannot be seen in isolation from other trends affecting business, such as population growth, urbanization, economic growth and developments in information and technology as well as climate change and increasing scarcity of natural resources.

– We are entering an era where the multi-trillion dollar losses of natural and nature-based resources are starting to shape markets and consumer concerns. How companies respond to these risks, realities and opportunities will increasingly define their profitability; corporate profile in the marketplace and the overall development paradigm of the coming decades on a planet of six billion, going to over nine billion people by 2050, says Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP.

A report for a society which has distanced itself from the biosphere

In essence the report is written for a society which has ”distanced itself from the biosphere, upon which its very health and survival depends”. It clearly shows that it is high time to realise that all business depend on biodiversity and ecosystem services - directly or indirectly - and concludes that companies that assess their impacts and dependence on biodiversity and ecosystem services will become the winners in an increasingly resource-constrained world.

TEEB is a global project, initiated by the G8 and five major developing economies, which focuses on ‘the global economic benefit of biological diversity, the costs of the loss of biodiversity and the failure to take protective measures versus the costs of effective conservation. It is hosted by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and supported by the European Commission; the German Federal Environment Ministry; the UK Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; UK Department for International Development; Norway’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs; The Netherlands' Interministerial Program Biodiversity; and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).

More at: The TEEB for Business report is available at www.teebweb.org